Teeth Saved, By The Hundreds

Graciela Morales of East Haven has no insurance. She lined up on New Haven’s Sherman Parkway at 4 a.m., two hours before doors opened, hoping to get a root canal.

Retired postal worker Linda Bell-Roy — her insurance requires an additional payment for dental coverage that she cannot afford — drove all the way from Southington because she has a filling on a molar that is loose and, she fears, about to fracture and fall out.

Bob, who has Medicare with no dental coverage and did not want to give his last name, drove down from Hartford bearing a badly broken tooth that he hopes might be saved.

People bearing those dental conditions, along with the accompanying pain and anxiety, lined up by the hundreds Friday morning in front and inside Hillhouse High School’s Floyd Little Athletic Center at 480 Sherman Parkway for a two-day free dental event.

They were there to benefit from the Connecticut Mission of Mercy, the Connecticut Foundation for Dental Outreach’s tenth annual gathering of more than 1,000 volunteers, including about 100 dentists and technicians, who are providing two days’ worth of free dental care to those who cannot afford it. The event reached capacity mid early afternoon For Friday; new patients will be seen on Saturday.

(Click here for an interview on WNHH 103.5 with one of them, Dr. Jerry Alexander about why he’s motivated to do the work.)

The group picks a different city in the state each year. It last came to New Haven in 2008.

That year the dentists added root canals to the services being provided, said Bruce Cha during a break Friday morning in his supervision of the root canal section of the proceedings unfolding inside the cavernous building.

Cha, a Cheshire-based endodontist, said his section alone was staffed by all nine endodontists from UConn’s endodontal residency program, three other endodontists, including Dr. Gerald Hyman from Greenwich, and three general dentists.

Among the thousand-plus volunteers helping to make that happen was Gamaella Pierre. She was there along with 44 of her fellow students enrolled in the University of Bridgeport’s dental hygiene program.

“We’re going to save hundreds of teeth today,” Cha said.

Pierre functioned at the nine o’clock hour as a guide for this reporter. While people waited in the line — hundreds long winding from in front of the center into the vast interior space — volunteers brought out yogurts, water, and silvery ​“space blankets” for warmth.

Other volunteers, like Putnam dentist Dr. Walter McGinn, walked along the line with signs indicating the kinds of procedures that could be undertaken in one sitting — fillings, cleanings, radiology — and the kind that could not be. Complex back tooth root canals, for example.

Once the potential patients get inside, they registered, then waited in line for the medical triage section. There they had blood pressure taken. If all was good, they moved on to the dental triage section.

There volunteers directed patients to the anesthesia section, if procedures requiring numbing were going to be performed; and from there, depending on the patient, to the cleaning section; the filling section; or the root canal area, where Drs. Cha, Luis, Hyman, and Carrasco concentrated on their work.

While this highly organized activity hummed in the middle of the arena where normally basketballs bounce, supplies for the work — including portable dental chairs, gowns, instruments, and hundreds of doses of bonding agents for fillings — were piled up high and being distributed by other volunteers like Scott McCaffrey. He’s the Connecticut sales rep for Germany-based dental supply company VOCO.

Morales was a first-time patient who said she heard about the program through her church, Fair Haven’s St. Rose of Lima.

“I’ve come for five years in row,” said Bell-Roy, who was accompanied by her husband, also there for dental work. During that time she received two caps, two fillings and a cleaning.

She said she was not in pain at the moment as she stood by the registration station, the first station reached after the long wait outside. However, ​“If they poked it, I’m sure it would hurt,” she added.

Bob, the older man who had driven down from Hartford, also follows the program. Last year, when the program offered services in Hartford, he didn’t have to drive as far. He went last year for the same reason he came this year to New Haven: to have a broken tooth fixed.

“I eat too much peanut brittle,” he said.

Morales, who had arrived in darkness to get in, had already by mid-morning been treated by Drs. Carrasco and Luis, both Venezuelan born dentists in their final year of endodontal training at UConn.

They determined that the tooth bothering her had previously had a root canal; the crown had fallen out. They needed to consult with Cha to determine if the tooth could be saved, and if it could be done in one sitting.

Dr. Carrasco huddled with Dr. Cha. They determined it was too complicated a situation to deal with during a one-day sitting.

As Carrasco translated some of Dr. Cha’s suggestions into Spanish, Morales was disappointed. He explained to her that the tooth definitely needs attending. She said she lacks the money. He suggested she follow up at UConn School of Dentistry clinics, where fees are more modest.

Morales said was still glad she had come. ​“The people are nice,” she said.

Cha said root canal procedures have progressed significantly since 2008. Many are taken care of in the single sitting provided, though follow-ups are needed.

Some of the dentists, including himself, have volunteered to provide follow-up visits at their respective offices up to a month after the 2016 clinic concludes on Saturday.

By the end of Saturday, when the doors again open at 6 a.m., Cha estimated that well over 1,000 patients will have been seen, and, in his root canal section, more than 100 teeth will have been saved.